tag: Silicene

Deadweight machines
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is in the process of cleaning, restoring and recalibrating its 4.45-million Newton deadweight machine.
NIST’s deadweight machine, the largest of its kind in the world, is equivalent to one million pounds-force. Built in 1965, the deadweight system consists of a stack of 20 stainless steel discs about three meter... » read more

Mapping temperature
Given that overheating is a major problem for chips today a team of UCLA and USC scientists have made a breakthrough that they believe should enable engineers to design microprocessors that minimize that problem with a thermal imaging technique that can see how the temperature changes from point to point inside the smallest electronic circuits.
The technique is called pl... » read more

28nm brain chips
DARPA-funded researchers have developed a 28nm chip that mimics the brain. The low-power chip is inspired by the neuronal structure of the brain.
Designed by researchers at IBM under DARPA’s Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program, the chip consists of 5.4 billion transistors. Built on Samsung’s 28nm foundry process, the chip has ... » read more

Measuring hydrogen fuel for cars
The use of fuel cells to power cars and buses is still in its infancy. Fuel cell vehicles are electric-based systems powered by hydrogen.
A fuel cell uses a certain type of proton exchange membrane (PEM). The PEM fuel cells are stacked together to form a fuel cell stack. All told, fuel cell systems are about 60% efficient, or roughly two to three times more ... » read more